Yellow fog warnings hit Bucharest and visibility drops on A0, A2 and A3 motorways

Warnings for Bucharest and several counties

The National Meteorology Administration (ANM) issued nowcasting yellow warnings for fog on Saturday evening, 24 October, covering Bucharest and other parts of the country. The warnings say fog reduces visibility below 200 metres locally and below 50 metres in isolated spots. For Bucharest and Ilfov, the first yellow warning ran until 02:00 on Sunday, 25 October, while parts of Brăila, Argeș, Prahova, Buzău and Dâmbovița, along with Ialomița, Călărași, Giurgiu and Teleorman, were under a warning from 21:00 to 02:00. Sunday morning updates extended the warnings to 09:00 in Arad, Bihor, Botoșani, Neamț and Iași, to 10:00 in Bucharest, especially its outskirts, and in Cluj and Bistrița-Năsăud, and to 11:00 in 13 counties including Constanța, Tulcea, Brașov and Sibiu.

Motorway visibility

Centrul Infotrafic warned that on Sunday morning drivers were moving through dense fog on the A0 Bucharest Ring, the A2 Bucharest-Constanța and the A3 Bucharest-Brașov, as well as on roads in 29 counties. Visibility was below 200 metres along the entire kilometre stretch of those three motorways and fell to between 50 and 100 metres on certain segments. The 29 counties listed by Infotrafic include Arad, Bihor, Constanța, Maramureș, Cluj, Brăila, Argeș, Prahova, Dolj and Iași, and the municipality of Bucharest is covered as well. Infotrafic also reported that no national roads or motorways were closed because of a road incident or weather, and that traffic was light on a partly wet carriageway.

Safety advice for drivers

Infotrafic and police urged drivers to reduce speed, adapt it to the condition of the road and check their mirrors before each manoeuvre. Overtaking was described as the most dangerous manoeuvre in fog, because oncoming vehicles without lights, or with only position lights on, can appear suddenly. Drivers were advised to use dipped headlights and fog lights in dense fog, and to keep a larger distance from the vehicle ahead, since braking distances grow on wet asphalt. Pedestrians, cyclists and horse-cart drivers were reminded that they are harder to see in fog.

Duration of the warnings

ANM said nowcasting warnings for immediate dangerous phenomena are issued for periods of no more than six hours. The fog is described as temporary and local, with the strongest visibility reductions in the outskirts of Bucharest. Each warning carries its own end time, so the picture changes as updates are issued through the morning.